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♦ Speech therapists are masters in the art of knowledge and use of the game, Dame Sarrasine,
Speech therapist and game designer, cites the
Definition of the game, from the Dictionary of Orthophonie
(F. BRIN, C. COURRIER, E. LEDERLE, V. MASY - L'ORTHO-Edition)
Play is a physical or mental activity, with no other purpose than the pleasure it provides.
This activity is predominant during childhood and participates in the construction of symbolic thought and emotional development.
Depending on age, there are three main types of games:
1) Exercise games
that have no particular structure and consist simply of using and repeating for pleasure any conduct.
The playful use of the conductor does not modify it in its structure because the functional pleasure, that of being subject
of the exercise, takes precedence over the adaptation proper,
Examples: infant pedaling and canonical babbling.
These exercise games grow during the first few months, reaching their peak during the first two or three years.
2) Symbolic games
which assume the representation of the mental image. They add to the exercise a new structural element which is the symbol
thanks to this capacity to represent by gestures a series of realities not present, absent and not given in the perceptual field
, examples: games of «as if», to do pretend role play game. They participate in the formation of symbolic thought and the emergence of language and also allow the child to
relive a conflict to compensate or liquidate it through play.
They begin in the second year (after the sensory-motor stage, at the beginning of the pre-operative stage),
reach their apogee in early childhood and then decrease.
3) The rules sets that have a tradition and are transmitted from generation to generation,
allow the child to experience the necessity of conventions. These games begin during early childhood, at the period of symbolic
games, but as an imitation of the adult rules game.
It is only after 7 or 8 years that the games are spontaneously organized according to rules. They grow with age until adulthood
where they become the essential form of play.
♦ According to research of Jean PIAGET (1896-1980), Psychologist, biologist, logician, and Swiss epistemologist :
For cognitive theory, gambling is a means of learning about objects, events, strengthening and extending knowledge and know-how.
It is a way to integrate thought with action.
Thus, in the evolution of play behavior, PIAGET describes three periods corresponding to the different styles of games and cited in the definition.
1- The sensory-motor period (0-2 years) during which the child plays only when the object is present. "Playing with his body". "Exercise games."
2- The representative period, or symbolic thought (2-6 years)
The representative period, or symbolic thought (2-6 years) during which the object became "permanent", the child no longer needs him to play.
It can be imagined and the child can then "pretend". "Play with his mind."
3- The social period (7-11 years) The social period (7-11 years) which is characterized by the games with rules, true social institution being
passed down from generation to generation.
♦ According to G. DUBOIS,
doctor in medicine,
a phoniatre born in 1933, a French speech therapist who led and taught speech therapy during 25 years at the
University of Bordeaux (France), a specialist in language therapies, says in her book: "The child and his language therapist", Masson edition, 2001 »:
- Exercise games are used to train auditory and visual perceptions, memory, oral language.
- Symbolic games allow the expression of fantasies, decentration, symbolization, spatial structuring, pre-mathematical
notions.
- Rules games allow the relation to the law.
♦ The first games are sensory-motor games involving the senses (Taste, sight, hearing, touch), body and motor skills.
♦ Then the games of "hide-and-seek" and "cuckoo", "it's the little beast that goes up, goes up ..."
are to be encouraged: they are done to two and entail skills like requests, turning, anticipation, permanence of the object.
♦ Then from 1 to 2 years ½, 3 years: evolution of the symbolic game. Make-up games.
The NICHOLICH scale (1981) states, with regard to this development:
- First the child uses the objects in an adapted and functional way.
- Then he makes gestures related to the body "drink".
- Then he applies an act of "pretending" to the animated toy or to the adult.
- Then he associates two or more actions in the game of "pretend".
- Finally, he has a project that guides his action.
For PIAGET, the symbolic game predominates from 2 to 6 years. It allows the assimilation of the real to the ego (without constraints or sanctions),
the compensation and liquidation of conflicts.
It allows the child to subdue his environment at a time of development where it is difficult for him to adapt to it.
It expresses the reality of the child as he perceives it, and especially feels it.
Through symbolic play, children can stick to the model (pretend) or detach themselves from it, and give free rein to their imagination,
detour necessary to arrive at the adaptation to the real and the objective.
Its function is the expression of the imaginary and allows the passage from the unbridled imagination to a structured imagination:
Oral language, written language, drawing, music ...
It is a transition before moving on to the language of adults he does not yet master.
The symbolization has three stages:
- the time of anticipation with the preparation of the game
- the time of expression: with the symbolization that acts
- the time of verbalization with the description and analysis of actions, representations.
♦ Selon WINNICOTT Donald (1896-1971) Doctor, Psychiatrist, Psychoanalyst:
The game is born of the gap between pleasure (presence of the mother) and displeasure (absence of the mother)
in a space called "potential or transitional".
This experience, which creates lack (and displeasure), obliges the child to compensate for it by a mental activity
which develops by creating his first images: "hallucinations of the absent object".
As the hallucinations are no longer satisfactory, the infant will seek, on the outside,
replacement objects allowing to mitigate the deficiencies of the mother by transforming a relative lack into a successful adaptation.
It is in this potential space that creativity unfolds and that we find all the symbolic activities: the game, the language, the culture, which will offer
to the child the opportunity to make fundamental experiments for his maturation and integration.
First the game is pure creativity, without rule (play), then little by little it adapts with the real and its requirements, to standardize progressively by rules (game).
♦ There are games and toys adapted to each age and that are found on this site in the human language part.
"Advice to parents on the harmonious development of their child's language" , as well as other advices.
♦ If the child presents attentional difficulties, touches everything and is not interested in anything,
The following provisions must be observed:
- The room in which the child plays must be calm.
- The number of toys left at the disposal of the child must be reduced.
- Provide some different toys that will replace the previous toys.
- Toys in duplicate before the child to incite him to imitate.
- Enter the games of the child and enrich them
- Stay beside him and wait until he wants to interact with the adult, that he initiates the game thus the communication.
Miniature showing two knights, a Muslim and a Christian, playing chess.
XIII th century (Library of the monastery of El Escorial, Spain)
♦ HISTORY
It is from the year 600 that one finds a trace of the game of chess.
Of Indo-Persian origin, it is the Arabs who will spread the game in the world through commercial channels
and then the expansion of the Muslim empire.
It was thus by Spain and especially Andalusia that this game was known in Europe.
(But also by Italy, the game was also broadcast to the countries of Eastern Europe)
At the rebirth, modifications appear, like the queen becomes the most powerful piece, rendering the Arab rules unusable.
This game has not undergone any major changes since the 17th century.
♦ ETYMOLOGY of the word 'chess game'
- "Dictionary of French words of Arab origin", by Salah Guemriche,
Ed du Seuil, 2007, p 348 :
"From the Persian to the Arabic" shah "The chess" form comes from the contraction in" é "of the article" al "in
"Al-shah" pronounced "ash-shah", by agglutination of the l, as in "al-cheikh: ach-sheik".
In this place, Dame Sarrasine adds: In Arabic, the consonants that assimilate the lâm of the article are called "solar letters". They are all "coronals", that is to say consonants whose realization
Intervene the tip of the tongue.
The Shah means King in Persian and the Sheikh here means the leader in Arabic, the generic meaning of sheikh being the master, spiritual guide associated with the idea of old and wise.
Salah Guemriche continues: "In addition, the final C, according to TLF, is perhaps due to a crossing of this word with
the ancient French Eschec: booty. In the Arab countries, the game is called Chipran'dj, named after its inventor,
Philosopher and Persian mathematician Schatrenscha ..."
The term "chess and mat" comes from Arabic (ash'aah maat-a-) which translates as "the king is dead".
However, the expression seems to have originated from the Persian sāh māta, that is to say, "the king is astonished."
- According" The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology"
There would have been a confusion between the Arab mata "dead" and the Persian "astonished".
Shah matt would mean rather "the king is defenseless", the king being the only piece not to be "killed"
But to surrender (the piece is then lying).
The two etymologies, however, are simultaneously compatible since a defenseless king is thus astonished and finally surrendered.
- "Etymological dictionary of the French language" Published in 1750, by Gilles Ménage (1613-1692), Source Gallica,
National Library of France, 5 pages devoted to chess (p502 -> 506, tome1):
Written in old French, Gilles Ménage sought everywhere the origins of this word, through Latin, Greek, German, Persian ...
To conclude p. 506: "I believe that I can conclude from all this that the words chess,
really have their first origin in the Persian language and not in any other language."
Note that he writes p 503:"Joannes Fabricius, p. 144, in his specimen Arabicum, attributes the invention to a famous
Philosopher and Persian mathematician "Schatrenscha" who gave his name to the game.
Johannes Fabricius (1587-1617) is a German astronomer who has discovered sunspots. Also studied the philosophy, medicine
but also grammar, dialectics and rhetoric, as well as geometry, chronology and physics. Member of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Prussia.
- On the side of India We find the word chaturanga in the Râmâyana, a text composed before our era, but it designates a military term
applying to the quadruple constitution of the army (infantry, cavalry, elephants and tanks).In addition,
the first references previously recognized for chess in India are denied or contested today. No more
historian does not admit of allusion to chess in the Vâsavadattâ of Subandhu, written around 620.
- In this connection, in :The Great History of Art, Volume 15 Islam Giovani Curatola, Le Figaro Collection, p105:
"In the game hierarchy, of Indian origin, and simulating a war between two armies, the madman (in Italian alfiere) - derived from
al-fil (the elephant) in Arabic rather than Spanish alferez , Coming in turn from Arabic al-faris (the horseman represented by
the horse) - is the third after the king and the vizier (prime minister turned into queen in the European version).
In combat first handed by the king and his most faithful counselor, four armies intervened: the infantry (on foot), cavalry
(horseback), elephants and chariots. Originally, in Sanskrit, the latter were called ratha. In Persian, this name was crippled
by assonance in rokh (the mythical bird, in many cultures): The phoenix, garuda, in English rook (raven crow, but also the play
of chess, for us tower); In Italian, the assonance of rokh with rocca (tower) is quite obvious. Forms in Islamic production
becoming more abstract and the elephant losing its natural appearance to take a pointed form, a new derivation was that of the
english word bishop (bishop) - by way of resemblance to the episcopal miter - term by which one designates the madman on the
other side of the Channel."
Elephant ivory chess piece - Iraq 10th century - Bargello National Museum - Florence - Italy
♦ TEXTS
The first texts in Arabic mentioning the failures date from the 8th century.
TEXTS IN LANGUAGE PEHLEVI (Persian)
- Year 800: "Chatrang-namak" meaning "Invention of the chess"
It is a Persian collection in which is described the arrival of the game of chess in Persia coming from India.
Dame Sarrasine adds here that we find here the name of the Persian mathematician (chatrensha / chatrang).
The objective of this game is to capture the opposing king.
- Xth Century: The Shah-Namah "the Book of Kings"
Abū-l-Qāsim Manṣūr ibn Ḥasan al-ṣūṣī, "FIRDOUSI" (around 940 AD 1020) fixed the history and culture of Persia in the immense
fresco "The SHAH Namah" the book of kings.
The game of chess is described there, quoting in this text an older text dating from the year 600:
- Le Wizârîshn î chatrang ud nîhishn î nêw-ardakhshîr which is the explanation of the chatrang and the invention of the nard.
In this text, it is explained the arrival of the chess at the court of the Sassanid emperors with an embassy of a king of India
(current Sind, on the banks of the Indus). In exchange, the King of Persia sent the Nard back to the Indian king.
Jean-Louis Cazaud "the play of routes through the centuries and the continents", Ed Pionissmo, relates this story p 94:
"The sovereign of a small kingdom of northern India had sent his vizier to the court of the king of Persia, Khorso I Anocharvan
(531-578), in charge of a message in the form of an enigma: he asked the Persians to drill the mysteries of a new game without
which they should pay a tribute. The sage Vazorgmitro guessed the rules of what turned out to be Chess, defeated the Indian
ambassador and gave him another game of his invention, Le Nev-artaxser (the Nard), which the Hindus could not interpret,
for the glory of Persia.
- There is mentioned another text "the Khusraw Kawadan ud Redag" (Khusraw son of Kawad and his page),
which deals with the education of young princes. The chess game Chatrang was featured in a good place, next to the dressage of the horses
and the new-ardakhshir (the Takhteh Nard).
Persian nobles held chess in high esteem and chess tournaments were held in Baghdad.
- All the texts which follow are very posterior to the Persian texts.
TEXTS IN THE LANGUAGE SANSKRIT (India)
India has a very rich literature mentioning allusions to the dice games.
- About 850 in Kashmir in the "Haravijaya (Shiva victory) of Ratnakara", a brief allusion to chess is written.
- In the XIIth century with the "Mânasollâsa of the king Someshvara III" intervenes the first complete description of the game,
describing two variants.
IN FRANCE: The chess game of Charlemagne.
In the etymological dictionary of the French language, by Gilles Ménage, 1750, p 504,
it is written :
"... To all these reasons one can add, what I learned from M. Auzout, a man of great erudition, that under one of those great
Chess which are at Saint-Denis, and which are said to be the Chess of Charlemagne, one reads these Arabic words: "Min amel Jousous
el-Nakali" which means "ex opere Joseph Al-Nakali" ...
Source gallica, national library of France.
♦ LITERATURE
- The song of Roland
In Europe, at the end of the XIth century (1098), the word "chess" intervenes in the song of Roland,
Retained in its earliest form in a manuscript copied between 1125 and 1150 (Oxford manuscript):
"On white silk rugs
Are seated the knights;
for fun,
The wisest and the old
Play at tables and chess,
And light graduates
"Wield the sword. "
Traduction J.Bédier, H.Piazza, 1922, p10.
♦ LEGENDES
- Indian Legend of the Brahman Sissa
King Belkib (India, 3000 years before our era) sought to deceive his boredom.
The sage Sissa, son of the Brahman Dahir, presented him the game of chess.
The sovereign, delighted, asked Sissa what he wanted to thank him for this extraordinary gift.
Sissa then asked the prince to deposit a grain of rice on the first hut, two on the second, four on the third, and so on,
doubling the amount of grain in each box to the last box. The prince immediately granted this seemingly modest reward, unaware
that he would never be able to pay the price of the game. Indeed, on the last square of the board, he would have had to put a
total number of grains, far exceeding the world production of rice.
- Greek Legend
Palamedes, a Greek hero of the Iliad famous for his intelligence, would have invented the game (along with others) to distract
troops during the siege of Troy while developing their strategic sense of war.
- Arthurian Legend
Palamede is a Saracen converted to Christianity become a Knight of the Round Table.
It was because he had imported "the noblest of games" from the Orient that his coat of arms was chiselled with sand and silver.